Polar Loop review

Few companies can rival Polar's heritage
in fitness tech, and its heart rate monitors have been the preserve of hardcore
runners since the 1980s. But now that seemingly every tech company is making
their own activity trackers, the Polar opens up its technology to the masses
with the Polar Loop.

Just like the Garmin Vivofit, the
Nike Fuelband SE and the Jawbone UP24, the Polar Loop wristband is
designed to track the health and fitness of the everyday person, not just the
serious athlete.

Trading interval training in the gym for
the daily rush to the bus stop, the Polar Loop tracks all key health stats
including calories, steps and movement and tracking it using its app Polar Flow.

With waterproofing and the ability to
pair a heart rate monitor for added accuracy, the Polar Loop is a serious
contender in the sports band stakes but does it have enough to take on tech's
big players?

Read on to find out if the Polar is the
activity tracker you should be strapping on.

Polar
Loop: Features and design

Carefully cut the packaging and it's immediately evident that the design
and build of the Polar Loop is lacking, when compared to the superbly crafted
Jawbone UP24 or even Samsung Gear Fit. It's made of a soft, near translucent
plastic, and the plum coloured option is a dirty look that's less than pleasing
to the eye, although the payoff is a significant weight saving.

The curved contours hug the wrist comfortably and after time you barely
notice it's there, a pre-requisite for something designed to be worn 24/7. The
band features an LED screen across which the various stats from your number of
steps to calories burned are displayed – and you can scroll through these with
a press of the single capacitive button.

The use of a virtual 'touch' button rather than a physical key means
there's no unsightly lumps or bumps breaking up the smooth look of the Loop,
however, we were unimpressed by the responsiveness, and were often frustrated
by it taking two or three attempts to register a press, and unfortunately,
that's not the only bugbear.

We were also miffed by having to perform some handicrafts to size your
band to fit when you first set it up. One false snip with the scissors on the
plasticky band and the only activity your Polar Loop will be tracking will be
your walk to the bin.

Polar Loop: App, web tools and syncing

Using the app or the website, you can dig into your daily, weekly and
monthly activity, see when you've been least active and also get tips on how to
hit today's target – which again serious users will find a little patronising.

Both the Polar Flow app and web tool have good levels
of detail displayed in a way that's easy to digest.

For monitoring your own activity, there's a simple
calendar view that lets you see your stats for any given day, week or month.
Drilling down to the day view offers fantastic detail on all your vital stats
like calories and steps plus by-the-hour activity and total number of minutes
spent resting, sitting, low (housework), medium (walking) and high intensity
(running) movement.

Inactivity alerts are logged for periods where you've
been sedentary for long periods, although it's limited to a discreet flash of
the LCD display, rather than an aggressive buzz, which is easy to miss when
you're having a busy day at your desk. iOS users will also get an alert via the
app as well, but no such luck for Fandroids.

On the plus side Polar Flow does have an active
social community that means you can compare activity with your friends, family and
strangers. The Polar app and website both offer a feed of what other Polar Flowers
are up to and you can even comment on their activity.

Polar Loop: battery life

We managed around six days from a single, full charge,
which is in-line with Polar's claims, and on occasions ours even went beyond
that.

Recharging from empty was also impressively quick. We
got a full charge in a little under ninety minutes. However, having to rely on
a slightly odd magnetised USB charging cable that's unique to this device is
frankly annoying. A standard Micro USB would be preferable, making it easier to
charge anywhere in the world.

Polar Loop

By Polar

We had to wait a while for Polar to get in on the activity tracker game and now that it’s here we like most of what we see with the Polar Loop – particularly at the price. For under £100, it’s an excellent fitness tracker that packs in plenty.
What it might lack in build quality, it makes up for with a solid feature set and a strong app. Chuck in waterproofing, heart rate pairing and a good battery life and you’re getting a lot.